Excerpts edited/condensed from UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA SWIFT BOAT VETERANS FOR TRUTH..
On March 23, 2004, a new Section 527 organization was created by John O’Neill, who took over Sen. John Kerry’s swift boat after Kerry left Vietnam. The purpose of the organization was to counter the false ‘war crimes’ charges John Kerry repeatedly made against Vietnam veterans who served in their units and elsewhere, and to accurately portray Kerry’s brief tour in Vietnam as a junior grade Lieutenant.
Part of their campaign was a series of television advertisements using 13 Vietnam veterans who described the events in Vietnam which awarded Kerry with a bronze and silver star, and three purple hearts…
Their communication campaign consisted of news releases, radio appearances, direct mail to households where a veteran resided in the battleground states and television advertisements…
The mainstream media ignored the initial Swift Boat Veterans’ campaign advertisements. As a result of the lack of coverage by the mainstream media, the Kerry campaign chose to ignore the attack ads and the book Unfit for Command released by the group. However, the story was widespread throughout the web logs on the Internet, radio talk shows and cable news networks…
Within two weeks after the first ad aired, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth generated enough public interest in the nontraditional media outlets, that the mainstream media could no longer ignore the story…
The story rapidly became major news, not because of elite media outlets, but thanks to the cable news networks, talk radio and the Internet…
Swift Boat ads were placed in the public consciousness through
non-traditional media. The massive growth and reach of the Internet and FOX over the past four years, combined with a thriving network of local and syndicated talk radio programs, created an alternate channel through which large portions of the country could receive news and information…
Nearly 60 percent of those surveyed had heard of the Swift Boat ad… The amount of free time the group received on traditional media outlets ‘is almost incalculable'. As a result, the issue dominated the presidential race…the ads run by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were either the first or second most memorable ads run during the entire issue debate.
https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a450594.pdf